Thursday, March 4, 2010

This works for me

I tried to take over Moira's bedtime about a couple of weeks ago (just the putting her to sleep part) when we accidentally discovered that she would fall asleep for me in less then half the time she was taking to fall asleep for Walker. It turns out, that even with sufficient sleep and time to relax by myself, I am a horrible parent at bedtime. Want to flop over to the other side? I will sigh and grumble. Try to pop up and talk to me? I will growl and be grumpy. I was getting less and less patient with nap time and the (still mandatory) morning nursing and snuggle back to sleep session.
Yesterday, I gave myself a migraine trying to get too much done in the day. Walker came home early and I lay in bed in the dark. He offered to try and put her to sleep so I could recover even more, and it went beautifully, she fell asleep fast and happily. My theory is that she just needed extra mommy/nursing time while she was sick and teething. She even slept longer stretches by herself. Walker even got to sleep in our bed for half the night (he has been spending most of the night sleeping in her bed, every night) She woke up at 5am not screaming and fell asleep during snuggle time a little faster and woke up happily after being asleep for almost 2 hours instead of 3.
That long and very boring paragraph is all to say, I think it actually works better for all of us. Shocking, really, that Moira might sleep better when the parent helping her go to sleep is not tense and resentful. Last night as I was listening to her happy babbling in the bath made me smile. This morning, watching her little head snuggle it's way across my chest until she plopped over in between Walker and I made me want to kiss her. And then when it was time for us all to wake up there was silliness and kisses. And pictures.